Paris 2024 Day 6 Recap: Cody Fournie golden on the track; Katie Cosgriffe wins bronze in the pool

– Men’s wheelchair basketball team advances into semifinals
– Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu into boccia pairs quarterfinals

PARIS – The Canadian Paralympic Team started and ended the day with a podium performance, with wheelchair racer Cody Fournie capturing the nation’s second gold of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in the morning and Katie Cosgriffe adding a bronze in the evening. Canada now has 13 medals through six days of competition. 

MEDALS WON ON SEPTEMBER 3

GOLD – Cody Fournie, Para Athletics, Men’s T51 200m
BRONZE – Katie Cosgriffe, Para Swimming, Women’s 100m Butterfly S10 

OVERALL MEDAL TOTAL

GOLD – 2
SILVER – 4
BRONZE – 7
TOTAL – 13

RESULTS SUMMARY 

Para Athletics
In his first-ever Paralympic race, Cody Fournie captured gold in the men’s T51 200m with a personal best time of 37.64 seconds. He bested his Canadian record by more than two seconds in the decisive victory.  

“It feels really good. All I can say is the hard work, the nutrition, and the hydration has all paid off,” said Fournie. 

Two of Fournie’s teammates just missed the podium with Marissa Papaconstantinou and Sheriauna Haase posting fourth-place finishes, in the women’s T64 200m and women’s T47 100m respectively. Zachary Gingras was fifth in the men’s T38 400m final. 

In the women’s T13 100m, Bianca Borgella was unfortunately injured during the race. She is currently being assessed and treated by medical.   

Para Swimming
Katie Cosgriffe, competing in her first Paralympic Games, is a bronze medallist in the women’s 100m butterfly S10. Finishing in 1:07.22, she touched the wall just 0.13 seconds ahead of the fourth-place finisher. 

“I have improved a lot over the last couple of years, and I have had this in my mind for a while; I knew this was always a possibility, but I didn’t see it actually happening,” said Cosgriffe. “And the fact that now it’s real, I’m just really happy with how it went. I’m not overjoyed with my time, but I can’t really complain about that, because I won a medal, so I’m happy about it.” 

Other results in the pool saw Mary Jibb fifth in the women’s 100m backstroke S9, Sebastian Massabie sixth in the men’s 200m freestyle S4, and Alexander Elliot eighth in the men’s 100m butterfly S10. 

In the morning, Nikita Ens and Aly Van Wyck-Smart in the women’s 100m freestyle S3, and Fernando Lu in the men’s 100m butterfly S10 did not advance out of the heats. 

Wheelchair Basketball
Canada secured a huge 79-67 victory over Netherlands to advance into the men’s wheelchair basketball semifinals. The difference was a monster 26-10 second quarter for the Canadians. Patrick Anderson had a double-double with 20 points and 20 rebounds to lead the squad, with Nik Goncin and Tyler Miller adding 16 and 10 points respectively. 

“Everything went right today,” said Anderson. “It started in the first half with guys stepping into open spaces and hitting jumpers like Tyler [Miller], Vincent Dallaire and Chad Jassman. Then we just kind of kept our foot on the gas and when things got tight down the stretch, Nik [Goncin] was clutch. I was spinning my wheels a little bit and watching the clock and Nik closed for us in a special way.”

Canada, eighth at Tokyo 2020 three years ago, will now get the opportunity to play for a medal. The semifinals, versus United States, will take place Thursday. 

Boccia
Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu went 2-0 in preliminary play in the BC4 pairs event Tuesday to advance into the quarterfinals. The duo opened the day with a huge victory over China. Down 5-0 at the halfway mark, they threw down three and five points in the final two ends to secure the comeback. 

“You want to win, and you want to show your resilience,” said Levine. “It almost makes the win sweeter, being down five nothing, and then coming back and winning versus just winning the whole game every end. That’s not an easy thing to do, and we got to do it.” 

In the evening, they defeated Croatia 6-4 to secure the quarterfinal position on Wednesday’s schedule. 

Goalball
The Canadian women’s goalball team was eliminated from medal contention with a 5-1 loss to Israel in the quarterfinals. The squad will now compete for a best finish of fifth place against Japan, which will be an improvement upon their Tokyo 2020 finish where they did not advance out of qualifiers. 

Para Equestrian
On the first day of Para equestrian competition at the Chateau de Versailles, three-time Paralympian Roberta Sheffield posted Canada’s top result. In the Grade II classification Sheffield and horse Fairuza finished sixth in the individual event, which also qualifies them for the individual freestyle discipline on Saturday. 

“I have such a special relationship with that horse,” said Sheffield. “When we go on the sand, there is a feeling almost like a gladiatorial feeling, that we fight together against the world, we are in this bubble together. We are taking on the challenge of doing that dressage test and nothing else matters. It’s a wonderful feeling of partnership.”

In the Grade I event, Austen Burns and Happy Feet 3 were 12^th and Jody Schloss and El Colorado posted a 17th-place finish.  

Wheelchair Fencing
Ryan Rousell posted Canada’s highest finish in wheelchair fencing, advancing into the second round in the sabre repechage. He first fell 15-7 to Artem Manko of Ukraine in the men’s category A table of 16, but moved into the repechage round where he defeated Brazilian Lenilson de Oliviera 15-4. 

In the second repechage round, he lost to Italian Edoardo Giordan 15-5. 

“I wish I did a little bit better, because I feel like I prepared and I deserve more,” said Rousell, at his second Paralympic Games. “But I also went up against some very difficult opponents who were all ranked higher than me, world wise, because you can’t really do anything about that draw.” 

In other results, Ruth Sylvie Morel, at her fourth Paralympic Games, lost 15-1 to Ukrainian Nataliia Morkvych in the women’s A category table of 32, while Trinity Lowthian made her Paralympic debut. The 22-year-old dropped her first bout 15-8 in the women’s B category table of 16. In the repechage, she lost a close duel 15-14 to Brazil’s Monica Santos to end her hopes in the sabre competition. 

Both Rousell and Lowthian will also compete in the epee on Friday. CLICK HERE for the complete results on Tuesday September 3.